Archive

Quotes

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

—Paul Valéry, 1943

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

—George Borrow, 1843

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

—George H. W. Bush, 1990